Ulnar Nerve Problems

It all started when I fell of the tramp when I was 8 years old. I broke my radial head in my left elbow. As soon as I broke that bone I lost the ability to turn my palm up. As I grew older it healed weird and my elbow grew all funny. My ulnar nerve was being pinch that I was losing feeling in my arm and in my hand and was having a lot of pain. I had surgery on my radial head when I was 16. The hand surgeon completely removed my radial head and moved my ulnar nerve so it wasn't being pinched anymore. I was in an elbow brace for 6 months and couldn't straighten the elbow during that time. There was one risk that since the radius bone was shorter than the ulna bone. that the radius was going to slip down and the ulna bone was going to be too long and cause wrist pain. Well it did happen. I had surgery on my ulna bone last year to shorten that bone to make both bones even. I now have a titanium plate and 7 screws holding my ulna bone together. I recently started going back to physical therapy to break up scar tissue. As the physical therapist scraped my incision my pinky finger will just start twitching and my ring finger. He said that this has to to with the nerves. I recently have noticed that my pinky and ring finger will sometimes start twitching uncontrollably. They also tend not to straighten all the way with my other fingers and stay curled up. I also keep dropping things that I'm holding in my left hand because my last two fingers just give out. Sometimes its hard to grasp things because my two fingers don't want to work. Has any one else had problems with their ulnar nerve after having surgery to re-positioned it. I'm not feeling any tingly or numbness. Pinky and ring finger are just super weak. My hand surgeon takes forever to get an appointment with. What are some things that you have done to help resolve this issue? I don't want any exercises that require you turn your palm up as my wrist doesn't rotate. Getting x'rays done is hard enough.

Hi,
I don't know anything about ulnar nerves but I did have tendon surgery with a lot of scar issue and I want to tell you that you are saving yourself a ton of trouble and pain going to a physical therapist to get it broken up. When my scar tissue broke on its own it was extremely painful and the pain would last 3 days each time it happened. As to the Ulnar nerve itself it seems like the nerve is sending and receiving mixed messages. I have a brain injury called "Cerebral Palsy" and my hands would curl or not fully straighten when I was younger because my muscles don't get the right messages from my brain even though my nerves are normal. For me the PT had me hold a squeeze ball like a stress ball in my palm and squeeze it. I would think about opening and closing each knuckle in the fingers when I did this and it seemed to help. I also practiced cutting things with scissors, dance and I do martial arts so that helped too. Try to strengthen those muscles in the fingers. Shaking is the electricity from the nerve firing into the muscle (I think). Sometimes the body part shakes to regulate and self correct the electricity in my experience but everyone is different so it could be a sign of other things. If the shaking gets worse or unpleasant have it checked. Do you think you might have some other sensory issues in the area like hypersensitivity? Good luck!

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